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Structures in Discourse: Interaction, adaptability, and pragmatic functions
Edited by Martin Gill, Aino Malmivirta and Brita Wårvik
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 345] 2024
► pp. 124–155

Emoji and illocutionarity

Acting on, and acting as, language

| Indiana University Bloomington
| University of California Berkeley

Emoji can modify a textual utterance, constitute a stand-alone speech act, or virtually perform an action. These three broad types of pragmatic function are usually treated separately in the literature when they are treated at all. We classify these functions in a systematic, unified manner by drawing on the classic speech act notion of illocutionarity. We present a conceptually motivated typology that accounts for the three basic types of emoji function, as well as most pragmatic functions reported in previous emoji research, illustrating it with data from American and Chinese social media. The scheme can serve as a practical heuristic to guide empirical research on emoji use and a theoretical anchor for pragmatic studies of other graphicon types.

Keywords: speech act theory, emoji, performativity, classification, typology, social media, Facebook, Twitter, Weibo
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Illocutionarity and classic speech act theory
    • 2.2Speech acts and performativity in textual CMC
      • 2.2.1Speech acts in textual CMC
      • 2.2.2Performativity in textual CMC
    • 2.3Emoji and illocutionarity
      • 2.3.1Emoji as speech acts
      • 2.3.2Emoji as IFIDs
        • 2.3.2.1Tone modification
        • 2.3.2.2Emoji as punctuation
  • 3.Data sources and analytical approach
    • 3.1Data sources
    • 3.2Analytical approach
  • 4.The classification scheme
    • 4.1Examples of IFIDs
    • 4.2Examples of IAs
      • 4.2.1Communicative acts
      • 4.2.2Behave acts
  • 5.Discussion: Boundary cases
  • 6.Conclusion: Theoretical and practical implications
  • Notes
  • References
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